Monthly Archives: September 2013

“Black Power” Groups

by Anton M.

“Often lumped together under the label ‘Black Power,’ these groups, though differing in their programs and beliefs, commonly had all-black memberships; rejected deference to white authority; asserted the right to armed self-defense; stressed black pride, unity, and internationalism; had acute understanding of the daily problems of ghetto life; and appealed in particular to urban youth, who were in many cases drawn by the discipline and purposefulness they provided.” p. 258

 

African-American movement was exemplified by The Nation of Islam and Black Panther Party. These so-called “Black Power” groups propagated nationalist ideas and did not shy away from violent resistance. Their primary success was in mobilization of black population all over the country. African-Americans were winning unprecedented amount of political seats. Increased awareness and a sense of purpose in black youth was a result of these groups. They were insuring that the younger generation was growing up resisting racial inequality rather than being used to it. Moreover, the work of “Black Power” groups largely inspired other movements in the 1960s.

Warren Court

by Anton M.

“During the sixteen years Earl Warren served as chief justice of the United States (1953 to 1969), the Supreme Court reinterpreted federal law and the Constitution to a greater extent than during any equivalent period in the past.” p. 236

 

Although the Warren Court did overturn an extremely high number of previous Supreme Court rulings, the changes were catching up with shifting social and political values. Eliminating anticommunist sentiment from the legal system confirmed the ushering of post-Cold War era. Eliminating segregation from matrimonial law proved to be an important step in civil rights movement. Other important rulings included decriminalization of contraceptives, which would prove crucial in Roe v. Wade years later. Perhaps the biggest changes were made to the criminal procedure. All major federal crime defenses were to be applied in state courts as well. Such drastic changes drew some public criticism but, overall, the Warren Court did a phenomenal job of appeasing the public and fixing the law.

The Warren Court

by np091051

“Forty-five times the Warren Court overturned previous Supreme Court rulings. Until then, in its entire previous history, the court had overturned its own decisions only eighty-eight times.”

Pg 236

 

Earl Warren was the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1953-1969. This court overturned more decisions than any Supreme Court before it. The Warren court made radical changes to previous precedent. Many of the Warren Court decisions were supported by popular opinion. Others were designed to update certain state legislatures to comply with modern national standards. Examples of this are Loving v. Virginia which eliminated anti-interracial marriage laws. Another example is Griswold vs. Connecticut which stopped the Connecticut State government to ban contraceptives.

Although the Court was generally praised for expanding individual rights, the Warren Court was sometimes criticized for of inventing new rights. Conservatives attacked the criminal justice advances made by the Warren Court (Ex. Miranda Rights, the 1962 Court decision that prohibited illegally seized evidence from being used in court). The Court was blamed for rising crime rates during the Johnson years.

Rolling Stones and John Colalcohol

by yo143832

“The search for individual fulfillment, central to the counterculture, had deep roots in American culture. So did the fixing of cultural and spiritual meanings to products and fashions. Seen from a distance, much of the counterculture looked simply like a series of aesthetic and cultural choices, long hair instead of short hair, the Rolling Stones instead of Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane instead of Louis Armstrong, marijuana and psychedelics instead of alcohol and tranquilizers.” (pg 236)

The anti-Vietnam war movement gradually started in the United States in the middle of 1960’s. the movement had began in colleges, and later influenced people to question the government about meaning of the war. Cultures were important tools of expressing their emotions and thoughts. A counterculture was developed during the age, and the Rolling Stones and John Colalcohol represent the culture at that time.

University of California, Berkeley

by Anton M.

“At Berkeley, the country’s most politically active campus, left-leaning students and their more moderate allies captured the student government (only to be maneuvered out of office by the college administration); protested compulsory participation in ROTC (a common requirement at state universities); and demonstrated against the HUAC when it held hearings in San Francisco in 1960 (marking an end to the fear and deference the committee long had commanded).” p. 192

 

Berkeley became the face of student movement in the 1960s. From Free Speech Movement to Vietnam War protests, student activism at Berkeley affected universities throughout the country and played and important role in bolstering the liberal movement. As educational system expanded and more colleges modeled themselves on Berkeley, coming of age youth began to dissociate from parents and embrace the rebellious culture of rock ‘n’ roll and liberal sentiment. Young activists enjoyed the new found freedom and directed their attention to critical issues of the time. The sheer size and cohesiveness of the student movement forever made “youth” relevant in the sphere of politics.

 

 

The CIA

by Mike Gaps

“To justify the American intervention by portraying the Vietnamese conflict as an attack by North Vietnam against South Vietnam rather than as a civil war, his (Jyndon B. Johnson’s) administration went as far as having the CIA create elaborate fake evidence of large-scale shipments of arms from the north to the south.”
-Joshua Freeman, Pg. 232
The falsification of intelligence information is an example of how our government believed it needed to instill fear and anxiety in American citizens to receive positive reinforcement for the Vietnam War. With tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union at its peak during the 1960’s, any fuel that could be thrown in to feed support of military involvement would likely garner more support against the communist regime. Having the CIA falsify information to scare people and deceive their perception of the war’s success and agenda is of course wrong, and did not prove to be a successful tactic. It simply tacked on to the civil disobedience present in our country. Joshua Freeman likely thought it was important to remind the American people of the type of manipulation the American government is capable of to try and gain support for its own interests, and not necessarily of its citizens.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

by Mike Gaps

“The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commision), soon after being set up by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, found itself swamped by complaints: its first year of operation, nine thousand cases were filed; by 1975, it had seventy-seven thousand. Quickly, it fell far behind in addressing them.”

– Joshua Freeman, Pg. 271

 

The struggles the EEOC faced presented a grim reality that equality in the United States was not something everyone saw eye to eye on. The presence of a government institution such as the EEOC, meant to help the Black population with fair employment opportunities, was not enough to convince many citizens that equality was to be recognized as the law of the land. With thousands of lawsuits and many companies continuing to racially discriminate the Black community from its workforce, high hopes of equality quickly diminished to continuous tension. The government was clearly unable to handle the large pushback of many of its citizens. Joshua Freeman likely presented these statistics to give a clear picture of the struggles the country was facing as it attempted to ‘rebrand’ itself as a truly equal nation.

Chuck Berry

by fd162959

” Writer Joan Didion, who attended Berkeley in the early150s, recalled that “we were the last generation to identify with adults.” (Pg. 190)

In the 1950’s, adolescents and young adults began to distant themselves from adulthood, and identifying themselves as teenagers. Companies designed clothes and music specially for them. For example , rock and roll musician Chuck Berry in his 30s, was popular among teens because  his music targeted specifically adolescents  by rejecting the adult world.

“Freedom Summer” Volunteers

by Mike Gaps

“On June 21, three project members, James Chaney, an African American from Meridian, Mississippi, Andrew Goodman, a white student from New York City, and Michael Schwerner, another white New Yorker and the oldest of the group at twenty four, on their way from investigating a church burning, were arrested by a deputy sherrif in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and then released on a deserted road into a Ku Klux Klan ambush. Klan members killed all three and hid their bodies.”

– Joshua Freeman, Pg. 193

 

The killings of these three “Freedom Summer” volunteers by the Ku Klux Klan members represents a time in American history where there were growing differences between the youth and older generations. It showed how the divide resulted in violent clashes that unfortunately cost the lives of these individuals. As more groups such as the “Freedom Summer” emerged, made up of young teenage college students, there was a greater push from the older generation to regain order and ban such institutions. Joshua Freeman likely referenced such a forgettable moment in history to demonstrate how serious the problem of generational divide was beyond what people heard of or saw.

 

Bay of Pigs

by keid

“But after the Bay of Pigs, the widely held view that he [John F.Kennedy] had been outmatched by Khrushchev at the 1961 Vienna summit…”

pg. 224

 

The American ego, from a military stand point,  was at an all time high in wake of the second World War. Not only did the United States emerge victorious from the greatest conflict that the world had ever seen, it did so against an almost objectively and overtly evil enemy. The failure of the invasion at the Bay of Pigs was the bursting of that military prowess bubble for the American people. It was a complete and utter failure. It not only made the American people realize that their military was  not invincible, but also  created doubt and mistrust between the people and the government. The confidential and classified use of C.I.A operatives for this operation caste a dark shadow around the whole invasion. The Bay of Pigs was the sowing of the seed planted by the U.S government that would soon grow into the wide spread political dissent that was rampant in the 60’s.